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Watching Porn Is Making You Religious, New Study Says
https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/watching-porn-is-making-you-more-religious-new-study-saysConventional wisdom says porn and religion don't mix. Religion thinks porn is sinful; porn thinks religion is rife with parody ideas. According to the Catholic Education Resource Center, "the problem with using porn is that it emasculates men, degrades women, destroys marriages, and offends the Lord."
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But when Perry compared how often people watched porn against rates of religiosity (using indicators like frequency of prayer and religious doubts), he found something a little more complicated than this common knowledge suggests. While people who use pornography at all tended to be less religious than people who had never watched it, people who watched porn at least once a week seemed to become more religious over the six-year time period than people who watched it monthly or less.
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The specifics of Perry's research were also illuminating. Religious doubts increased when subjects watched porn more often—until people said they watched porn a few times a week, at which point doubts declined. Perry attributes this to cognitive dissonance and "guilt and shame." "We want to be the embodiment of the things we say we believe," Perry said. "When we're confronted with cognitive dissonance, we basically have one of two options to resolve the dissonance. We can change our behavior, or we can change our beliefs and values. When it comes to pornography and religion, some religious porn users are successful at changing their behavior, and they either use it less often or not at all. Others, however, rather than change their pornography use, just adjust their religious beliefs and values to be more consistent with what they're living out. This is why we might see a decline in religious participation or an increase in religious doubts over time for porn users."
Other indicators of religiosity increased with porn use. "When it came to religious practice like prayer and worship attendance, those who viewed pornography at the highest frequencies earlier on seemed to pray more often and attend church more often over time compared to more moderate porn users," Perry said.
...
But when Perry compared how often people watched porn against rates of religiosity (using indicators like frequency of prayer and religious doubts), he found something a little more complicated than this common knowledge suggests. While people who use pornography at all tended to be less religious than people who had never watched it, people who watched porn at least once a week seemed to become more religious over the six-year time period than people who watched it monthly or less.
...
The specifics of Perry's research were also illuminating. Religious doubts increased when subjects watched porn more often—until people said they watched porn a few times a week, at which point doubts declined. Perry attributes this to cognitive dissonance and "guilt and shame." "We want to be the embodiment of the things we say we believe," Perry said. "When we're confronted with cognitive dissonance, we basically have one of two options to resolve the dissonance. We can change our behavior, or we can change our beliefs and values. When it comes to pornography and religion, some religious porn users are successful at changing their behavior, and they either use it less often or not at all. Others, however, rather than change their pornography use, just adjust their religious beliefs and values to be more consistent with what they're living out. This is why we might see a decline in religious participation or an increase in religious doubts over time for porn users."
Other indicators of religiosity increased with porn use. "When it came to religious practice like prayer and worship attendance, those who viewed pornography at the highest frequencies earlier on seemed to pray more often and attend church more often over time compared to more moderate porn users," Perry said.
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